I'll briefly interrupt the usual whooshy wind and tumbleweed here at Fresh Brainz with this video you just HAVE to see.Check it out in 720p for all the astounding detail.
At first, it seems like a well made, Transformer-esque CG virtualscape...
... but when it zooms in, you start to see recursive patterns of Lego-like metallic plates, and it zooms further in and...
HEY! SELF SIMILARITY!
It's a fractal!
Yes my friends, now solids can also be fractals.
Apparently, such 3D fractal sets have only been developed a couple of years ago, and mathematicians are still considering if it is a "true" 3D Mandelbrot set.
But mathematical rigour aside - just think of the artistic potential!
The ability to generate visually spectacular landscapes with both sweeping scale AND detail - simply by plugging numbers into a formula.
Incredible, bizarre environments that goes to the limit (or beyond?) of human imagination.
Filmmakers and gamemakers, get a crackin'.
Would you like to know more?
Other epic 3D fractal videos:
- Mandelbox trip (YouTube)
- Trip to center of hybrid fractal (YouTube)
About the mathematics of 3D fractals:
- The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous fractal (New Scientist)
- Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal (by Daniel White)
- Mandelbox (by Tom Lowe)
